DHAKA: Over 120 Islamic scholars from around the world, many of them leading Muslim voices in their own countries, have issued an open letter denouncing militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and refuting their religious arguments.

An array of Muslim leaders and groups has publicly rejected the Islamist movement since it imposed its brutal rule over large areas of Syria and Iraq this summer.

Five Muslim nations have also joined a US-led military campaign against it.

The 22-page letter, written in Arabic and heavy with quotes from the Quran and other Islamic sources, is just as clear as those groups in condemning the torture, murder and destruction ISIS militants have committed in areas they control.

‘You have misinterpreted Islam into a religion of harshness, brutality, torture and murder,’ the letter said, reports The Straits Times.

‘This is a great wrong and an offence to Islam, to Muslims and to the entire world.’

Its originality lies in its use of Islamic theological arguments to refute statements made by self-declared Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani to justify their actions and attract more recruits to their cause.

The letter is addressed to al-Baghdadi and ‘the fighters and followers of the self-declared Islamic State’, but is also aimed at potential recruits and imams or others trying to dissuade young Muslims from going to join the fight.

Nihad Awad of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which presented the letter in Washington on September 24, said he hoped potential fighters would read the document and see through the arguments of ISIS recruiters.

‘They have a twisted theology,’ he said in a video explaining the letter. ‘They have relied many times, to mobilise and recruit young people, on classic religious texts that have been misinterpreted and misunderstood.’

BDST: 1142 HRS, OCT 02, 2014